Search

Based on the experimental results of Chen et al. to use the solar furnace and medium frequency induction furnace to extract boron impurity from metallurgical silicon, we propose a strong radiation catalysis mechanism to explain the difference of reaction rates in these two furnaces. The postulate assuming the photons striking on the material not only increase the thermal energy of the molecules of reactants but also lower down the energy barrier of the reaction to speed up the chemical reaction. It is believed the photon catalysis mechanism is universal in most of high temperature chemical reactions and looking forward to more evidences for the postulate proposed in this article.

Following Chen's method [Commun. Theor. Phys. 52 (2009) 549] to use 8-step line tilting to realize tip tilting, to achieve finer rotation, it is discovered that a 16-step line tilting method may realize a rotation two order smaller than that achieved by 8-step.

In this article, we report the principle and conceptual design of a fundamentally different technology in fabricating high precision aberration free optical devices. The tip-tilt of facet in a mirror array is produced by digitally controlled line-tilts of rows and columns. It has not only provided a cost-effective designing methodology in optical physics but also led to a much finer precision of 1 mili arc sec or less. As examples of the application of the proposed digitalised optics, two case studies have been given: a 10 m Schmidt telescope (off-axis) and an 8 m Cassegrain telescope (on-axis).

By direct calculation of rotation matrices of SO(3), we show how certain specific sequence of eight consecutive rotations of digital angles can yield a tilting of a facet mirror. We also design a detailed program specifically to tilt an array of mirrors from planar orientation to the required focusing orientation. We describe how to use the 8-step to realize the focusing of the mirror array. We have found, in our designed program, an important feature of row-sharing during the rotations for the columns and similarly the column-sharing during the rotations for the row. This feature can save a lot of operating time during the actual realization of the mechanical movements.

By using the derivative method, we obtained the same result with that of the previous work of Chen et al. in 2006. Different from the integral form, the derivative form of the surface expression published in this paper is derived from differential equation and based on the theory of non-imaging focusing heliostat proposed by Chen et al. in 2001. The comparison of the derivative form of fixed aberration correction surface has been made with that of integral form surface as well as that of spherical surface in concentrating the solar ray.

The possibility of modifying a conventional Cavendish torsion pendulum into a half-armed pendulum oscillator to measure the horizontal gravitational acceleration is discussed. A new kind of gravitational detector, gravieye, as we named, can be made by a proper combination of such oscillators to "see" remote objects and to be used, e.g. to detect the movement of huge mass at a long distance.